BricklayerandBrickworkSpecialistinRingwood
Ringwood sits on Avon river gravel that drains fast on the terraces and turns soft and wet down by the water, and that difference decides how a wall's footing gets built. We work out of Ferndown, a straight run west down the A31, and are over this side regularly.
- Free, no-obligation quotation on every job
- NVQ Level 2 qualified, CSCS carded
- 5-year workmanship guarantee
- NVQ Level 2Diploma in Bricklaying
- CSCSCarded tradesman
- Up to £1mPublic liability cover
- 5 yearsWorkmanship guarantee
What the ground is doing here
Building on Avon valley ground
Most of Ringwood stands on river terrace deposits, a skin of gravelly sandy clay over sand and flint gravel. It drains well and it digs hard. Closer to the river and the Bickerley that gives way to alluvium, up to two and a half metres of soft silt and clay that is often peaty, and the Avon here rises on groundwater as much as rainfall, so an open trench can start filling before the job is even finished. Two different digs, a few hundred metres apart. The housing across the town is red brick under tile almost throughout, from the older streets out to the newer bungalows at Poulner, so a repair can usually be matched.
- On the terrace gravel the digging is flinty and slow, and we price the footing for that rather than assume it is easy going
- Down near the water the ground runs soft and wet, so the footing goes deeper and wider and the dig gets timed round the weather
- The clay at the edges of the valley shrinks in a dry summer and swells back after rain, which is what cracks a wall built on too shallow a base
What we can build or put right in Ringwood
Wall building is most of it, with repointing, brick repairs and patios alongside. Pick the one nearest your job and it will tell you what is involved here.
Brick and garden walls
Garden wall buildingNew walls and rebuilds. On this valley ground, footing depth is the first thing we work out, before anything else.
Driveway wallsEntrance and boundary walls either side of a drive, set back clear of the verge on Ringwood's narrower lanes.
Retaining wallsThe ground climbs away from the floodplain towards Poulner and Hangersley, so plenty of gardens up that way need a bank held back.
Decorative brickworkFlemish bond and the skilled patterns most bricklayers will not quote for. They suit a red brick town like this one.
Brick piers and gate postsPiers dig easily out of terrace gravel, which is exactly why they still need a proper base under them.
Brick stepsSteps for a garden that sits below the house, common on the slope down towards the river.
Brick plantersRaised beds, and a sensible answer for a garden that stays wet after the Avon has been up.
EV charger wallsA short wall built to take a home charger, matched to the house rather than bolted onto it.
Repointing and brickwork repairs
Brickwork repointingDamp valley air and a high water table keep mortar wet longer, and wet mortar fails first.
Brickwork repairsCracks, spalling and frost damage. Ground that shrinks and swells is behind a fair share of the cracking we see here.
Brick matchingRingwood is a red brick town through and through, so a patch in the wrong red shows from the pavement.
Chimney repointing and repairsRepointing, repairs and rebuilds at the stack, the part of the house nobody looks at until it starts leaking.
Blocking up doorways and windowsOld doors and windows bricked up and matched to the sill line on a Victorian or Edwardian front.
Wall tie replacementCorroded ties in a cavity wall, taken out and replaced from the outside.
Extension brickwork
Footings and foundationsThe blockwork below ground. Anywhere near the river, getting that dig right matters more than usual.
Cavity and structural wallsCavity walls and the structural brickwork on a domestic extension in the town.
Subcontract bricklayingBricklaying for a builder running a domestic job around Ringwood.
Here is how a job runs
The same four stages on a Ringwood repoint as on a garden wall.
Free site visit and quotation
Message us and Jack, who visits every job personally, will usually be out to see it that week. In Ringwood the first thing we look at is what the ground is doing, because that decides the footing and the footing decides the rest. The quotation is free and it comes in writing, with no obligation.
Preparation
We order the bricks and mortar and agree a start date. For anything on the low ground near the Avon we plan the dig around the forecast, because an open trench in wet valley ground will not wait for the weather to improve.
Construction
The work is carried out to a high standard and the site is left clean and tidy at the end of every day. Spoil off a flint gravel dig is heavy going, so it gets stacked well clear of the garden.
Finishing
Everything gets cleaned down, all the waste leaves with us, and we walk you through the finished job. On a wall that means checking the joints and the coping as well as the face of it.
What customers say
Word for word from our Google profile. Google does not show where people live, so these are from across the patch rather than Ringwood specifically.
5.0
Rosemary Collins
Jack did an excellent job rebuilding a section of our garden wall and repairing cracks in other sections despite having to work through challenging weather conditions and unexpected complications in relation to the groundwork.
Dane Gardner
Jack is a real craftsman who repaired my steps and repointed my patio to a very high standard. From the start he was good at communicating, replying to messages quickly and providing a prompt quote.
The bits people ask about before they say yes
The questions that come up before anyone books, answered straight.
Will my garden be left in a state?
The site is cleaned and tidied at the end of every day, and all the waste leaves with us when the job is finished.
Will I actually hear back from you?
Message us on a Monday and we will usually have looked at the job by the end of that week, with a quote to you by the weekend.
What if something goes wrong later?
The work carries a five-year workmanship guarantee. If something we have built fails in that time, we come back and put it right.
Questions people in Ringwood ask
If yours is not here, message us and we will answer it properly.
Do you cover Ringwood?
Yes. We work out of Ferndown, a straight run west down the A31, and we are over in Ringwood regularly. That covers Poulner, Hightown, Hangersley, Crow, Blashford and the villages down the valley towards Bisterne and Sopley. Message us and we will come and look at the job, usually the same week.
Do I need planning permission for a garden wall in Ringwood?
It depends which side of a line you are on, and Ringwood is unusual in having two planning authorities. The town itself sits outside the New Forest National Park, so most addresses come under New Forest District Council. Land to the east and south east of the town falls inside the Park, where the National Park Authority is the planning authority instead. The town centre is also a conservation area, which brings extra control, particularly over taking an existing wall down. We are bricklayers, not planning consultants, so we will tell you which authority covers your address and leave the application itself to you.
My garden sits wet. Can you still build a wall on it?
Usually, yes, but not on the same footing we would use higher up the town. The strip along the river is alluvium, soft silt and clay that is often peaty, and the Avon here rises on groundwater as much as rainfall, so the water table can sit close to the surface. That means digging deeper for firm ground and widening the footing to spread the load. We would rather find that out with a spade before we quote than halfway through building.
Can you repoint an old wall in the town centre?
It depends what it was built in. Much of the oldest brickwork around the Market Place was laid in lime mortar, and lime work is not a specialism we take on. If yours turns out to be lime we will say so rather than point it in cement and leave it worse than we found it. Most of what we repoint around Ringwood is later brickwork that was pointed in a cement-based mortar to begin with, and every job gets a written quote after we have had a proper look.
Other towns near Ringwood
Dorset and into Hampshire, all worked from our Ferndown base.
Fordingbridge
The next town up the Avon, over on the Hampshire side.
Fordingbridge coverageVerwood
Just over the county line, on the heathland west of the valley.
Verwood coverageChristchurch
Downstream, where the Avon meets the Stour and the harbour.
Christchurch coverageFerndown
Where we work out of, a straight run west down the A31 from here.
Ferndown coverageNew Milton
South of here, with the Forest in between and the coast beyond.
New Milton coverageGet a free quote
Tell us what you need and we'll come back with a price. No pressure, no hard sell.
Prefer to talk? Call JFE Brickwork on 01202 028 343